US Masters Golf preview: Tiger Woods still the man to beat

The real golf season begins next weekend when the first major of the year, The Masters, tees off at Augusta National in Georgia.

The reigning Masters champion may be Phil Mickelson, but he’ll have to battle Tiger Woods for all the headlines as he goes for his third green jacket. Woods, a four-time winner of this event, was last sized for a green jacket in 2005, but after already winning two PGA events this season the Augusta tailors may want to keep Woods’ measurements close at hand.

Unlike the other three majors. The Masters has been dominated by golf’s superstars for almost a decade. While relative unknowns like Michael Campbell and Todd Hamilton have won the U.S. and British Opens in recent years The Masters has been owned by the big names, specifically Woods and Mickelson.

That may be due to the fact that the other three majors change their course every year, while The Masters is always played at Augusta. One other big difference is the much smaller field allowed to enter The Masters.

In the past six years the only person not named Woods or Mickelson to put on a green jacket was Mike Weir in 2003.

Considering that Weir has failed to even crack the Top 10 at any tournament so far this season, it’s highly doubtful he could be the one to break the Woods/Mickelson streak.

Mickelson won last year’s golf tournament by two strokes over second-place finisher Tim Clark. Woods ended up in a five-way tie for third at four under par. Aside from the other big names such as Vijay Singh (2000 Masters Champ) and Ernie Els, a real darkhorse to upset Woods and Mickelson is Jose Maria Olazabal.

The Spaniard has already won The Masters twice during his impressive career (1999, 1994) and he was one of the four golf game players that ended up tied with Woods for third place last season.

Olazabal may not be off to a great start this season (his best PGA finish is 13th), but it’s not hard to see that he elevates his game for The Masters with five career Top 4 finishes.

Some other players to keep your eye on include three-time major champion Ernie Els, who’s still looking for his first green jacket; Sergio Garcia, still looking to break his majors curse; and Henrik Stenson, who already topped Woods once this season, but struggled at Augusta in his first Masters appearance last season.

Odds to Win The 2007 US Masters

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 12:08 am and is filed under Ernie Els, Golf, Phil Mickelson, Sports, The Masters, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.